– It was a standard practice in all countries occupied by the Soviets. Also in Poland. Former communist partisans were ideal candidates for Soviet political police officers. The perfectly new the area, realities and organisational structures of the underground movement fighting for independence. The only question is if he became a member of NKVD voluntarily ? You would rather not reject NKVD offer – says Professor Andrzej Żbikowski, Jewish Historical Institute.
Arad, asked for this episode from his life, is not able to control his anger.
– Were you a member of NKVD ?
– No ! No I was never employed by this institution.
– The Lithuanians claim otherwise.
– After the front moved forward they used us to perform certain tasks.
– What tasks ?
– Fighting with Lithuanian, Nazi collaborators.
– At the beginning of 1945 ? How come ? The Germans at that time were defending themselves in Berlin.
– Everybody who by May 9, 1945 i.e. until capitulation of the Third Reich, was shooting at the Red Army, he was acting in favour of the Third Reich war machine and was a collaborator. Please mind that the Soviet Union was one of the allies. The same as the Englishmen and Americans.
– However, the Lithuanians believe that they were fighting for their independence.
– After May 9, 1945 – that is correct, but earlier anyone who was not with us was on the Germans side.
– And there was no third option ?
– No.
The „Lithuanian collaborators”, as they were called by Icchak Arad, were the members of the Tigras Troop of Lithuanian Liberation Army. In March 1945 along with other Lithuanian Soviet political police officers and soldiers of 25th Regiment, 4th Rifle Division of NKVD he participated in the huge sweep operation in the Labonarska Forest. The Bolsheviks using a denunciation of the agent alias Szarou, destroyed two partisans’ bunkers called „Kaunas” and „Margis”.
In the former bunker at least 73 persons were „physically exterminated”, whereas the number of victims of the second assault is unknown. During the sweep operation Arad was supposed to arrest two Lithuanian soldiers, viz. Stanislav Uliczickas and Ludwik Malakauskas. Both of them without a trial were sentenced by the Soviet military tribunals for deportation to concentration camps. The first of them was sent to the concentration camp near Workuta where he perished in December 1949.
According to the Lithuanians Arad departs from truth when he claims that at that period he was not an NKVD officer. – The documents of special service of Lithuanian Soviet Republics show that he was a full-time NKVD officer. He was paid a salary and performed official duties – says Rytas Narvydas, the Head of the Special Investigation Department at the Homicide Investigation and Resistance Movement Centre in Lithuania. It was him who prepared evidence for the Prosecutor’s Office.
Icchak Arad was supposed to perform a function of district proxy of the NKVD Department in Lithuanian Soviet Republic in the Hoduciszki Municipality, the Święciany district. It was the structure whose objective was – as it is emphasized by the Lithuanians – „extermination of people with the views contradictory to the policy of the Soviet occupation authorities”. Arad’s promising career was interrupted by his sudden fleet to Poland in April 1945.
The young man using fake documents, pretending to be a Polish citizen, left the Vilnius area by one of the first trains for Poles heading for future communist Poland. In this way in mid 1945 he found himself in the city of Łódź, where after a couple of months he headed for Palestine by sea.
– Why did you decide to leave ?
– It is simple: I did not want to leave in the Soviet Union. I dreamt about Palestine since I was a kid. As I have already told you I was a Zionist and I dreamt about building a Jewish state.
– So it was not the war events that made you leave for the Middle East ?
– No. It is true that Holocaust destroyed my world. All ties connecting me with Europe were brutally cut off. But even if that horrible event never happened I would have left anyway. I was fulfilling my Zionist dream. I am an Israeli patriot.
Entirely different course of action is shown by the NKVD documents that have survived to date. – Icchak Rudnicki was dismissed from NKVD disciplinary, which was then a rare case. He abused alcohol, was charged with a theft of a sheep and hooligan behaviour. He beat up someone in the street. NKVD planned to run an internal proceedings against him. That is why he escaped. In the files he is marked as a deserter – reports Rytas Narvydas.
All the facts described above have been totally unknown to the general public in Israel for whom Arad is unquestionable moral authority. After all at the beginning nobody was not inquiring what a 19-year-old Icchak Rudnicki was doing in the forests of the Vilnius area. Every Jew who was could shoot was worth his weight in gold in mid 1940s.It was expected that the Arab states will not agree out of their free will for the establishment of a Jewish state.
Right after the arrival at the Middle East Arad became a member of Hagana, a Jewish socialist conspiracy organisation. He trained there future Israeli soldiers. Then during war for independence in 1948, he was fighting hand in hand with former soldiers from the Anders army whose number in the armed forces of emerging Jewish state was substantial.
– In Israel where there are plenty of Jews from former Soviet Union nobody is disturbed by the fact that someone fought in communist partisan groups in the past. Former partisans have there their own organisations, publish magazines, organise rallies and write memoirs – says Professor Andrzej Żbikowski. – After all Arad’s past was known perfectly in the community of historians. They knew he was an NKVD officer. They were even teasing him by dubbing him „Sashka”, because when he became the head of Yad Vashem Institute he spoke perfectly in Russian while he English was very poor – emphasized Professor Zbikowski.
There is one more aspect of the whole matter. The Jewish partisans have in Israel a special status, because they are a live denial of the painful stereotype. A belief that all European Jews were driven to a slaughter without any protest. For the state, which is permanently in the state of war, such legacy has special significance.
– Did your experience gained with partisans come useful in Israel ?
– Yes. A great deal.
– Is that why you decided to make a military career ?
– Certainly, it helped me a great deal. However, the army was for me a natural choice. The Jews were again surrounded from all sides by the enemies. They wanted to murder us. I thought that my duty was to fight, not to let another disaster happen.
– Why did you change your surname ?
– That was the policy of armed forces. We were starting from scratch. We were building a new state and new nation. We wanted to shed off previous life and experience from Europe. It was supposed to be a fresh start.Israel reacted exceptionally sharply to the request of the Lithuanian Prosecutor’s Office. It was rejected firmly by the Ministry of Justice.
– The Israeli authorities believe that the investigation against Icchak Arad is a scandal. We passed out position to the Lithuanian government in a decisive manner – Tal Vider, the spokesman of the Ministry broke off the conversation.
Certainly Arad was not interrogated. A few days ago during the visit of the Prime Minister Gediminas Kirkilas to Washington even American Jewish organisation intervened in his case. They demanded to stop forthwith „the outrages investigation” and to drop „absurd charges”. The identical position was taken by Yad Vashem Institute management.
– How could I characterise Arad? First and foremost he is an honest man. I know him perfectly, we worked together for many years. I can tell you with full responsibility that this is not a person who would be capable to murder someone in cold blood. Arad is a Holocaust survivor who deserves big respect. The Lithuanians totally ignore our sensitivity, actions taken by them are scandalous – says Professor Izrael Gutman associated with Yad Vashem Institute.
Arad’s case is very closely related to the Holocaust. During the outbreak of WWII he was in Warsaw where his father was working as a cantor in a synagogue. After three months of Nazi occupation Arad made his way together with his sister to home town of Święciany. His parents, who decided to stay in Warsaw, were gassed in Treblinka concentration camp later. A real horror started when in 1941 the Germans entered the Vilnius area.
Then a 15-year-old lad eye-witnessed a brutal pogrom made by the Lithuanians. Most of the Jewish dwellers of the small town were murdered then. Arad survived thanks to lucky coincidence and soon he was put into ghetto. When I ask him for a fight with the Lithuanian underground movement he emphasizes that for him it was a „fight with the murderers of forty members of his family”. Grandfathers, uncles, aunts and a number of once, twice or three times removed cousins who perished during pogroms and pacification operations.
Is it possible to explain some of his activities by personal reasons? – Please remember about specific nature of Holocaust in the territory of Lithuania. It was one big Jedwabne . The Lithuanians unlike Poles collaborated with the Nazis on a mass scale. Meanwhile Arad was a man of his times. An eye-witness of what was going on. It is a very tragic story – says a prominent expert on Holocaust Professor Anthony Polonsky.He indicates another very delicate aspect of the whole matter. Arad, who until recently had been extremely popular in Vilnius, a few years ago was appointed to sit on a special historical committee with the aim to carry out a research on Lithuanian history under two occupations. During his work on the Committee he firmly stigmatised the Lithuanian involvement in the Holocaust including but not limited the murders performed at the place of slaughter in Ponary near Vilnius.
– Many people in Lithuania did not like that very much. The current attack on Arad may be a revenge. After all thousands of former Soviet partisans, both Lithuanians and Russians live in Lithuania and nobody carps at them. And here all of a sudden an investigation on a Jew – emphasizes Professor Anthony Polonsky. – This is supposed to build the following picture: there were two occupations, viz. Soviet and German. During the German occupation the Lithuanians misbehaved, whereas during the Soviet occupation the Jews did. This certainly not true, because the scale and form of collaboration were entirely different. Nevertheless the whole issue smells very bad – he added.
The Lithuanians reject the accusations of anti-Semitism firmly. – I totally do no care whether this guy is called Arad, Kowalski, Iwanov or Baranauskas. It has nothing in common with any race prejudice. All we care for is to find truth and justice. And that what is our work all about – says Rimvydas Valentukeviczius, Prosecutor who is in charge of the investigation.
Icchak Arad managed the Yad Vashem Institute for 21 years. From 1972 to 1993.The main mission of the Institute is to commemorate and to make people realize how horrible was the genocide made by the Nazis. The Institute publishes books, collects mementos, documents and accounts of the survivors, organises scientific conferences and exhibitions. Sometimes it also takes the floor on public issues. Like it was in the case of charges brought forward against its former Chairman.
– Why did you decide to work for Yad Vashem Institute ?
– I thought that I owe something to my murdered family, to may destroyed townlet and my nation tormented to death.
– What objective did you have ?
– It is essential to show young generations what Holocaust was like. Ruthless murdering of people on behalf of gruesome ideology. We should do our best to prevent this happening again, to make sure that people will never commit genocide again.
Paradoxically enough the Lithuanian government suspects Icchak Arad to have breached Articles 99 and 101 of the Penal Code of the Republic of Lithuania i.e. for having committed a genocide crime. During his numerous lectures, during book writing or giving interviews on the Holocaust monstrosities has Icchak Arad never come back in thoughts the Vilnius area forests ?
– What do you think today about your service in the partisan group ?
– I am proud of it.
– More than of work at the Yad Vashem Institute ?
– The largest achievement of my life is neither partisan fighting, nor Yad Vashem. What is crucial for me is that I have three wonderful kids, nine grandchildren and three grand grandchildren. That is what really counts.
– General, if you look from today’s perspective at your entire life, can you say honestly without guilty conscious that you do not regret anything in your life?
– You know, once I had a lecture at one of American colleges. After my speech a certain young man stood up and posed me a surprising question: „Are you satisfied with your life ?”. I replied that if I were satisfied, then I would have to be a nutcase. My whole family was murdered, I went through the hell. However, if in a certain magic why I could go back in time and had to make once again all choices in my life, I would have acted exactly the same. No, I do not regret anything.
Icchak Arad is today 82 years old. He is an old-age pensioner, but he has not given up research work. He writes books. He lives in a military old people’s home near Tel Aviv.
